FOUR occurs very frequently, both in ancient and traditional art in China and Japan, to represent the four directions (north, south, east, west), and also the fifth direction, the center (which in China refers to China itself).

. Feng Shui 風水 Chinese Geomancy
Feng Shui and the number 24
Feng Shui practitioners regard 24 as complete number for heaven and earth.
Ring 5: The Ring of the Earth. 24 seasons of the agriculture calendar.
The seasons were divided up into two stages 12x2=24 characters or every 1/2 month is a seasonal division.

2.sooten 東方蒼天(The Azure Sky of the East)
3.kooten 西方昊天(The Vast Skies of the West)
4.enten 南方炎天 (The Blazing Skies of the South)
5.genten 北方玄天 (The Mysterious Skies of the South)

6.henten 東北方変天 (The Odd Skies of the North-East)
7.yuuten 西北方幽天 (The Secluded Skies of the North-West)
8.suten 西南方朱天 (The Scarlet Skies of the South-West)
9.yooten 東南方陽天 (The Sunny Skies of the South-East)

There is also a Buddhist understanding of this term.
九重天図 - 九重天 kyuuchuu no ten 九重の天 - 九個の天球
月天・水星天・金星天・日輪天・
火星天・木星天・土星天・恒星天・宗動天。

As the highest place in heaven it was also used to describe the imperial court in China.

Each protects a direction, one month and a double-hour.
Time and Space are one in their presence.

写真掲載 仏像のかたちと技法

These four heavenly kings are the guardians of the world who reside on the slopes of Mt. Sumeru in the heaven named after them from whence they are each responsible for one of the four cardinal directions. Each leads an army of supernatural creatures who help them keep the fighting demons (asuras) at bay.

Henderson comments:
...[it is] a quite possibly apocryphal story that Basho was once asked, jokingly, to compose a haiku on all eight views. The point of the joke was that there did exist a well-known 'tanka' (of thirty-one syllables) in which, by a series of word plays, all eight views actually are mentioned by name. This was manifestly impossible to do in seventeen syllables, but the story goes that Basho got out of the trap by answering:
[see haiku above]

The "Bell of Mii Temple," considered to have a surpassingly lovely sound, is of course one of the so-called "Views." See LINK below.

Oh, East is East, and West is West,
and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently
at God's great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West,
Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face,
tho' they come from the ends of the earth!

The movements of the stars in the sky start from the center, moving north, north-east . . .

Some important shrines and their amulets:

Daishogun Hachi Jinja 大将軍八神社
Kyoto

Daishogun is the deity of the Pole Star (see the back of the amulet).
He governs all directions and precides over the directional taboos (katatagae 方違え taboos leading to a change of direction in order to avoid a taboo direction, like the kimon direction).
kata imi 方忌み directional taboos during the year

Daishoogun no kami 大将軍神像 statue of Daishogun
Taishoogun たいしょうぐん
Hasshoojin 八将神（はっしょうじん）Deity of the eight directions
His name is also 素戔鳴尊 スサノオ Susano-O.
The shrine is located in the North-West, at the Tenmon gate 天門 of the Imperial Palace Gosho 御所 .. The Kyoto Imperial Palace (京都御所, Kyōto Gosho) .

source : Lucia Dolce The worship of celestial bodies in Japan: politics, rituals and icons
The Great General of Directions

This shrine is famous for its amulets to prevent diseases and ward off evil influence 病厄除け.
During the great famine of Tenmei (1784) many people died. When the Shogun in Edo heared about it, he had special rituals and amulets made for exorcism and sent to Aomori, also two bows and arrows. They were offered at the shrine in Sotogahama 外ヶ浜の産土神 to the local deity. And shortly after that, disease stopped to spread and the famine came to an end.. . . CLICK here for Photos of the shrine !

People buy this amulet, breathe three times on the paper figure with the wish of what they want to get rid of and then place it in the wooden box. The box is given as offering to the shrine. The arrows in the box will take care of the evil that hovers around this person and protect him.

shoogokumairi, shoogoku mairi 正五九参り shrine visit three times a year
To make an offering and pray for a good outcome during a problem.
The best time is
January 正, May 五 and September 九 - the first, fifth and ninth month.

It is also possible to visit in this combination
（2月・6月・10月）--（3月・7月・11月）--（4月・8月・12月）

Shogoku mairi is sometimes even done over a period of three or more years.

- quote - 9 Star Ki (Japanese: 九星気学 , Chinese: 九宫命理 or 九星命理) is a popular system of astrology, often used alongside Feng shui.It is an adjustment or consolidation,[6] made in 1924 by Shinjiro Sonoda, to traditional Chinese divination and geomancy methods, such as Flying Star Feng Shui, the Ming Gua (Chinese: 命卦) number from the Eight Mansions Compass School of Feng Shui, and combining the Lo Shu Square with the "Later Heaven" Bagua.
There are thought to be nine-year and nine-month cycles of Ki/Qi on Earth, which are related to solar and seasonal cycles, and which have common effects across the planet on people's mental and physical development and experiences throughout their lives. The 9 Star Ki 'stars' are numbers that represent those cycles. The numbers can be calculated for anyone on/from Earth using only a birthdate. - source : wikipedia -

THE RIGHT DIRECTION TO SLEEP IS WITH FEET FACING WEST 1. Introduction to going to sleeping with feet facing West

In this article on how to sleep well we will study the effect of sleeping with our feet facing the West direction. This study about how to sleep well is entirely from the spiritual perspective. It will help us take an educated decision about how to sleep well from the perspective of the direction of our feet when we sleep.http://agrasen.blogspot.jp/2008/04/right-direction-to-sleep-is-with-feet.html

The Development and Decline of Chinese CosmologyJohn B. Henderson.Cosmological ideas influenced every aspect of traditional Chinese culture, from science and medicine to art, philosophy, and religion. Although other premodern societies developed similar conceptions, in no other major civilization were such ideas so pervasive or powerful.

In The Development and Decline of Chinese Cosmology, John Henderson traces the evolution of Chinese thought on cosmic order from the classical era to the nineteenth century. Unlike many standard studies of premodern cosmologies, this book analyzes the origins, development, and rejection of these models, not just their structure. Moreover, while historians often limit their studies of cosmic order to specialized fields like the history of science, Henderson examines how the cosmological ideas formulated in late classical times permeated various facets of Chinese life, from high philosophy to popular culture.

In discussing these ideas, the author draws surprising parallels between the history of Chinese and classical Western cosmologies, identifying general patterns in the development of cosmological conceptions in several premodern civilizations. This volume thus appeals not only to students of Chinese intellectual history, but anyone interested in cultural anthropology, ancient and medieval philosophy, and the history of science and medicine as well.

An understanding of the development and decline of Chinese cosmology illuminates broad areas of traditional Chinese culture and it provides a new perspective for viewing the history of Chinese thought in a larger comparative context.